The first weeks of Mr Trump being in power have been disruptive, the least to say. Concomitantly, reflation trades, which we were early proponents of since Spring last year, may be getting overextended. We believe it may be time to consider Defensive and Growth stocks again.
President Donald Trump pledged Thursday he will soon unveil a “phenomenal” tax cut plan. "Lowering the overall tax burden on American business is big league. That’s coming along very well. We’re way ahead of schedule," Trump said during a White House meeting with airline industry executives on Thursday.
Trump and GOP congressional leaders have come under fire recently from some conservatives for not taking action on popular campaign promises like cutting taxes and repealing Obamacare.
Germany reported a new record trade surplus in 2016, official data showed Thursday, exporting €253 billion more than it imported.
Europe’s biggest economy exported goods worth nearly €1.21 trillion ($1.29 trillion) last year, 1.2% more than in 2015, the Federal Statistical Office said. Imports rose to €954.6 billion, a 0.6% increase.
Both exports and imports broke previous records set in 2015. The statistical office said that Germany’s current account surplus climbed to €266 billion from €252.6 billion.
President Donald Trump will sign executive orders on Friday to review the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms and halt a Labor Department rule designed to curb potential conflicts among brokers who give retirement advice, according to a White House spokeswoman.
Trump’s move marks a step toward making good on a campaign promise to dismantle the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which was passed in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The legislation forced banks to take various steps to prevent another financial crisis, including holding more capital and taking yearly “stress tests” to prove they could withstand economic turbulence. The financial industry, particularly its small community banks, complained the rules went too far.
Pharma industry leaders, including Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez and Merck & Co. chief Kenneth Frazier, got their marching orders from President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning. Lower your prices, deliver "better" innovation and "move your companies back" to the U.S.
In a "pharma" meeting in the Oval Office, the President told executives from companies that they have done a "terrific job over the years" but that prices for drugs must come down.
"Our trade policy will prioritize that foreign countries pay their fair share for U.S.-manufactured drugs, so our drug companies have greater financial resources to accelerate development of new cures, and I think that’s so important," Trump said.
Whenever the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches a new milestone the investors are used to cheer. It happened last week, when the most famous of the stock indexes broke the 20’000 mark, after flirting with this significant level for about two months. Is this new record so important for the market? To be honest, it looks difficult to find a rational reason for all this excitement, 20’000 is just a number, as they were all the round numbers that the index had reached in the past years. Psychology is important at this matter: a close above 20’000 feeds optimism and confidence, especially among retail investors, and translates into new purchases.
Despite some concerns around the start of last year, and the political shocks that unfolded over the course of the past 12 months, 2016 actually turned out to be quite a good year for investors, with most asset classes rising in value. But what can we expect over 2017, and how should investors approach the coming year? In this short outlook document we outline what we expect over the year ahead and set out what we believe could be the best-performing asset classes in each of our main scenarios.
President Donald Trump has proposed construction of a US-Mexican border wall and is expected to pause the flow of refugees to America as he launched broad but divisive plans to reshape US immigration and national security policy.
A draft executive order seen by Reuters that Trump is expected to sign in the coming days would block the entry of refugees from war-torn Syria and suspend the entry of any immigrants from Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and African countries Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen while permanent rules are studied.
